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Learn Japanese with JapanesePod101.com! In today’s lesson, our intrepid traveler, John, is looking for the rapidly vanishing kōshū denwa (pay phone). Let’s see if the sweet little old lady helps him find one!

Check out this newbie Japanese lesson to master the grammar point ni aru, which is used to say where things are. Tune in to find out! After listening, stop by JapanesePod101.com, and be sure to leave us a post!

 

Grammar: | Function: | Topic: | Politeness Level:


This entry was posted on Monday, April 2nd, 2007 at 6:30 pm and is filed under Newbie Season 1 . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

46 Responses to “Newbie Lesson #18 - To Exist or Not to Exist”

JapanesePod101.com says:

Mina-san, hope you had a great weekend! In Tokyo the cherry blossoms were blooming like crazy! As for the lesson… While they may be disappearing, you gotta admit the public phones in Japan are pretty high tech. Have you ever used one?

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Miho says:

Hi, I am Miho from Melbourne here, and I thought it would be cool to introduce you to some extra vocab.

電話ボックス(でんわぼっくす) denwa bokkusu
Telephone booth/box

テレホンカード terehon ka-do
Telephone card

国際電話(こくさいでんわ) kokusai denwa
International phonecall

電話帳(でんわちょう) denwa chou
Telephone book

I hope this will help your learning!

Oyasumi nasai :eek:

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Michael D. Cassidy says:

Why 18?? Shouildn’t this be Newbie 16???

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Alan says:

After reading the pdf, I learnt that vampires are described using iru rather than aru. :smile:

And yes, it seems that Newbie 16 & 17 got skipped. Maybe we need some more lessons on maths. Actually I’m not too fussed, there’s more important things in life.

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Daniel Beck says:

Can’t remember the last time I saw a public phone. :shock:

Alanさん、

Re: vampires. Well, they are animate even if they are undead. :wink:

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markystar says:

mihoさん、どうも有り難う御座います! :mrgreen:
feel free to share anytime!!
宜しくお願いいたします。 

michaelさん、 hahahaha, not sure how that happened, but seems like the numbering in our production schedule got shuffled. so nothing was actually skipped, but someone mislabeled this one. next in cue is 19… so… hmmm.. どうしようかな~…  :oops:

alanさん、it’s rare to have a chance to be funny with grammar, so we couldn’t resist including that little gem! :cool:
glad you noticed, lol!

danielさん、really? there are payphones all over my neighborhood, they have ISDN hook ups and all sorts of fancy features. never used one though, wouldn’t wanna cheat on my hitachi ワンセグ lover. lol. :lol:

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JockZon (JZ) says:

Hmm, seems like you should look over the newbie lessons since there aren’t only this one that’s mislabeled.

Great lesson btw, and Miho-san, great vocab there. Otsukaresama deshita. Arigatou Gozaimasu. :cool:

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Daniel Beck says:

御座います

There is an honorable living chair? :shock:

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marky star says:

thanks JockZon! (and we’ll look into it!) :oops:

daniel, hahahaha 御座る・御座います  :shock:

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DIkhead says:

arigatiou gozaimasu!!!! otsukaresama deshita

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NickT says:

Is it really true that there are hardly any public phones left in Japan? I visited Japan about 2 years ago, and I found (and used) plenty of public phones. Have they all been ripped out in the last two years?

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Daniel Beck says:

NickTさん、

I’m not sure how different the situation is from two years ago (it’s all a blur to me :shock: ), but when a few years ago, there were rows of telephone booths next to every station. Now, there are just bicycles. :roll:

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Jacky says:

hmm…are the audio links for lesson 18 dead by any chance?

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Eran says:

Hi Jacky-san,

I am able to play both the regular audio and bonus audio tracks fine… Could be a temporary network hiccup. If it persists for a while shoot me an email at support@japanesepod101.com.

Thanks,

- Eran

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Jenny says:

Ok, you’ve got to put up the text for the bonus audio. I’ve listened over and over and still can’t get everything. :(

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Chris says:

Hello,

I have noticed that the PDF for some of the recent lessons don’t always match the dialogue or vocab. コンビ二 and 前 are not listed in the vocab section at all and I was a little lost (and not listening as much) as I flipped through the PDF looking for it. I feel it would be helpful if the PDF was updated to reflect this.

Thanks,
クリスー  :kokoro:

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Gaz says:

I agree with the above comment.

Many vocab seems to be missed on the first 10-15 lessons on most sections. Things like “new year’s day” so anouther lesson is not in the PDF but is a main part of the audio lesson itself.

Same with this one sadly, also the bonus track has no write up, i dont think any bonus track has (that i have seen yet) Even though Peter says the write up will be online.

Hope it gets sorted soon!

Arigatou gozaimasu!
Mata ne.

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Mayumi says:

Chris-san, Gaz-san,
Thank you for your feedback! :dogeza:
I’ll let you know when we update the vocab list on the pdf. Thank you for your patience! :dogeza:

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Andrea says:

Hi I have a question,
“iru”,”imasu” / “aru”, “arimasu” confused me,
so, how to use iru/imasu (aru/ arimasu)?? :roll:

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Mayumi says:

Andrea-san,

Can you search lessons with putting “arimasu” or “imasu” in the search box, please? You’ll find many lessons about this topic! :dogeza:

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Kyle says:

I just noticed that:

Kono hen ni koushuu denwa wa arimasu ka

and

koushuu denwa wa sono tonari ni arimasu yo

have the same parts, but the arrangement is mixed.

So is it also acceptable that sentence 1 be:

Koushuu denwa wa kono hen ni arimasu ka.

and sentence 2 be:

Sono tonari ni koushuu denwa wa arimasu yo?

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Jessi says:

Kyleさん,
Yes, those arranged sentences are also acceptable! Nice work :mrgreen:

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Kyle says:

Jessiさん,

ありがとうございます。

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Francesca says:

Why there is no learning center working?? =O

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Mayumi says:

Francesca-san,

Thank you for pointing it out! I fixed it. :dogeza:

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Iwakura says:

The fine japanesepod101 answering machinery seems to have stagnated some. :) Nonetheless, let me try again. Consider the following, please:

Kono hen ni gaikokujin wa amari imasen.
There are not many foreigners around here.

Why use imasen? (negative). In English you’d say: “Not many ARE,” instead of “Not many aren’t.” (the latter is effectively forming a double negative; and, as you know, in English the double negative is a definite no-no!).

Amari = not very, not much, remainder, rest, remnant. And even ’seldom’, as I found out:

Kohi wa amari nomimasen.
I rarely drink coffee.

Same issue. Why does “seldom, rarely, not much, not very, etc.” have to be denied? Why not just the following?

Kohi wa amari nomimasu.

And, while we’re at it, why not use WO, like I expected?

Kohi WO nomimasu.
(”Watashi wa kohi WO nomimasu,” in full).

Thank you!

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Kat says:

Iwakuraさん: 

Sorry, we were on New Year holidays!

1. Kono hen ni gaikokujin wa amari imasen.

‘Amari’ doesn’t just mean ‘not very’; it can also mean ‘very’ WITH CERTAIN VERBS, as in: amari bikkuri shita. ‘I was really shocked/surprised’. However, in this usage it just reflects a fact of Japanese grammar that amari + negative verb = ‘not very —’. So literally, this means ‘in this area, foreigners aren’t very present’. Japanese has no prejudice against the double negative, as you will find out. I really recommend you go and learn the basic rules of grammar before you attempt to jump ahead in these lessons.

As to your other question about wo instead of wa, in the sentence ‘kohi wa amari nomimasen’, you’re saying ‘As for coffee, I rarely drink it (compared with tea/other soft drinks).’ Wo is also correct, but it is a much more definitive statement with no suggestion of comparison which wa gives.

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Iwakura says:

Kat-san,

You said: “I really recommend you go and learn the basic rules of grammar before you attempt to jump ahead in these lessons.”

Well, that’s the part I’m confused about, because in order to learn the basic rules of grammar I have to do exactly that: skip ahead in these lessons to season 2! So, staying with the season 1 lessons, until I reach season 2, means I only have access to the few grammar rules we’ve been given so far. Naturally, I look things up anyway (on various places on the Internet); but, as these things go for newbies, getting too far ahead just means I get entangled too much and start drawing wrong conclusions. So, I wonder if you could provide some guideline on how to best handle grammar ‘on the side,’ as it were.

Thanks!

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Tasia says:

At the Jr College I go to they have jidō hanbaiki that sell hot drinks, and ice cream. :mrgreen:

At the beginning of each lesson after the hello ‘place’ part, a woman says something that I think ends with gozaimasu, but I can’t figure out what she’s saying.

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Jessi says:

Tasiaさん,
Sounds like a great jidōhanbaiki! :kokoro:
Do you mean before the hello “place” part? The phrase before it is JapanesePod101 de gozaimasu (This is JapanesePod101!) :smile:

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Kat says:

Tasiaさん
Japanese jidō hanbaiki are the greatest in the world! I miss being able to buy hot drinks and cold drinks from the same machine when I go back to the UK…

Do you mean the first line of the introduction, where she says “Hai, Japanese Pod ichi maru ichi de gozaimasu”? She’s saying “Yes, this is Japanese Pod 101″. “De gozaimasu” is the most polite form of “desu”, which is mostly used nowadays in the service industry when addressing a customer. :smile:

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Salivia Baker says:

先生
Is コンビに a legitimise word or use in texts? I mean those you write language not when writing a letter to a friend or so. Or do you use コンビにエヌ ストル(sp?) then? So is the abbreviation colloquial or “official”?

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Naomi says:

Salivia Baker-san
コンビニ is a legitimate word in a conversation(formal or informal) or letters. You can find this word in the dictionary.
However in the news or newspaper articles, you’ll see コンビニエンスストアー too. (I think which word to use is depending on the newspaper and T.V station. (ex)Yahoo news uses コンビニ instead of コンビニエンスストアー)

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Salivia Baker says:

oi, I was waaaay off with the spelling *lol*

ありがとうございます for the quick answer (and the correct spelling!) .
Would it be weird if I would use コンビニエンスストアー in a conversation?

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causewaypond says:

i learn from school, あります is used with が。

can it also be written as:
この辺に公衆電話がありますか。

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Naomi says:

causewaypond -san
You’re right. :grin:
However in a negative sentence and a question sentence, particle wa can be used instead of ga.(using ga is still fine though :wink: )
So both この辺に公衆電話はありますか。and この辺に公衆電話がありますか is fine.

I hope this helps. :grin:

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ウラジミール says:

Mina-san,
could you please help me to find a transcript of the bonus audio? It seems, the PDF doesn’t have one.
By the way, is there any difference between mina and mi-n-na? I find both forms in the dictionaries, but can’t seem to figure out the nuances between the two.
Thanks :smile:

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creek says:

ウラジミールさん、I was also wondering what the bonus track said. I wrote a transcript of what I thought was being said below. I’m not sure it’s accurate and there’s a big part of the last sentence that I just can’t make out :shock: . Maybe someone else with mad Japanese skills :cool: can fill in the blanks. To me, it sounds like she’s telling him to go buy a cellphone.

男:あの、すみません。
女:はい?
男:あ、あの、この辺に公衆電話はありますか?
女:公衆電話??あんた携帯持てないの?
男:あ、はい。
女:あぁ、じゃね、あそこのコンビニの前の、あの、自販機…「don’t understand this part」…買ってください。

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Jim says:

Wow I think I am actually learning something . This is easier that English class if I remember correctly . I think I have better teachers here on JP 101 .
Language was a pain for me I was a Math and Physics major at University .
Astrophysics and Quantum Mechanics i can do but never thought I would be speaking simple Japanese . My wife is impressed . She is from Osaka .
Thanks too all .

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王凱 says:

あの、すみません。
この辺に公衆電話がありますか。
あ、コンビニの前に自動販売機はあります。
公衆電話は隣にありますよ。
ありがとうございます。

まだ今日ね

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kaitlyn says:

there’s something wrong! it only played 4:00 mins T_T i wanna’ finish this lesson.

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Jessi says:

kaitlyn,
Please try deleting the cache and cookies from your browser and trying again :)

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amber says:

everything in japanese looks like boxes,大大 what do i do?

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ケ-ス says:

Amberさん

you have to download the japanese fonts for your computer :)

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けんじ君 (ローガン ダニエル) says:

Aさん:あの、すみません。
Bさん:はい。
Aさん:この辺にスーパーはありますか?
Bさん:ああ、あそこにあります。

is my example right? :roll:

by the way, the particle “は”, in “この辺にスーパーはありますか?” can be changed with the “が” particle, “この辺にスーパーがありますか?”

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Motoko says:

けんじ君(ローガン ダニエル)さん
It doesn’t sound natural with ga, unfortunately.
It is grammatically possible to use ga in this sentence, but the speaker asks about supermarket contrasting other shops in this situation.
ex)
A:(There is a convenient store there but I like to go to a supermarket.)この辺にスーパーはありますか。
B:ああ、あそこにあります。
I hope this helps. :grin:

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